Jon Kaufman

Joe McBride, a UC Berkeley forestry professor emeritus, and the Claremont Canyon Conservancy issued a proposal to manage vegetation for campus property located in the Strawberry and Claremont canyons.

California’s recent widespread death of trees — affecting 102 million trees since 2010 — is raising environmental concerns among fire and ecology experts.

Twenty-five years ago, the Oakland-Berkeley Hills fire took 25 lives, injured 150 and left 5,000 without homes, causing an estimated $1.5 billion in property damage.

On Sept. 9, the UC Berkeley Fire Fuel Management Program announced that its Hill Campus Fire Hazard Reduction Program is delayed due to a termination of funds previously awarded to the campus.

Environmentalists shed their clothing Saturday morning on campus to rally against what they see as plans to cut down an estimated 450,000 trees in the East Bay hills.

Twelve elected officials urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency to release funds for a proposal to remove trees that pose a “fire hazard” from Claremont Canyon, a regional preserve that runs through Berkeley and Oakland hills, in a letter released on Tuesday.